coign of vantage

American  

noun

1. a good position for observation, judgment, criticism, action, etc.

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coign of vantage British  

noun

1. an advantageous position or stance for observation or action

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Etymology

Origin of coign of vantage

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

The lawyer jumped up and drew a protesting Emerald from her horsehair coign of vantage.

From Shadows of Flames A Novel by Rives, Amélie

From this coign of vantage Stirling watched developments with eyes which had been sharpened by suspicion and a determination to find out the truth about the unknown woman.

From The Ice Pilot by Leverage, Henry

Stratford-on-Avon, too, belongs to this part of the country,—a little old-world town, where the bust of Shakespeare looks down upon you from every coign of vantage.

From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 3 by Various

He eyed her momentarily from a vast and aloof coign of vantage.

From Joan Thursday by Vance, Louis Joseph

She pirouetted up to the front of his box pretty often during the evening, and several times hurled ancient wheezes at the riotous funnymen from that coign of vantage.

From The King of Schnorrers Grotesques and Fantasies by Zangwill, Israel